NZFF

At least two killed as aircraft crashes into buildings at Whenuapai airbase
Sat, 26 Apr 2008 04:59p.m.


Two people have been killed in a small aircraft crash at Whenuapai in North Auckland.

According to reports a single engine aircraft, believed to be a Cessna, crashed into a building at the Whenuapai defence force airbase - two fatalities have been reported but a search is underway for other possible casualties.

Witnesses have described the accident by saying that a "bright flash" occured as the light aircraft flew over the airbase moments before it plummeted into a hangar.

Fire and ambulance staff were on the scene within minutes after police received reports of the crash at around 4:38 pm and say that two people were killed on impact.

The full extent of damage to the hangar building is not currently known.
3 News will update this story as more details are made available.

http://www.tv3.co.nz/News/NationalNews/Atl...64/Default.aspx

This is really tragic, and I feel really sorry for the families involved

May they rest in peace.

Just saw this on the news too.
RIP and thoughts with those involved.

Cheers
Anthony

yeah rip guys but look at it this way they died doing what they loved

Sad for sure ,anyone one know what hanger it was ?? i was just driving past there yesterday afternoon , not in bad taste or anything but im sure they werent enjoying the last part of the flight sounds horrible ,i was watching that united 93 movie today ,and it really puts the willys up ya thinking of it all how short life is aye ..
R.I.P to the fallen my thoughts are now with to the familys they have left behind ..

RIP

Bright Flash?!?

RIP

The aircraft was the Thorpe S-18 (WMT) built and flown by Wayne Matthews.
I knew Wayne through being a long term customer of mine,interestingly enough
each year I got to see the a/c being built in his garage at Greenhithe,very good bloke and always
only too willing to show this aircraft off to anyone who wanted a look.
Nunner

Very sorry to hear about this, I live reasonably near Whenuapai and I've seen Wayne and ZK-WMT quite a bit before, not good.

FlyingKiwi wrote:

QUOTE (FlyingKiwi @ Apr 27 2008, 11:50 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Very sorry to hear about this, I live reasonably near Whenuapai and I've seen Wayne and ZK-WMT quite a bit before, not good.

Wayne matthews recently completed a circumnavigation of the three main islands around nz. the flight took him around 15 hours to complete.


R.I.P

I remember photographing WMT at Whenuapai last year, thinking how much fun it would be to go up in a spin in it- very sorry to hear this news.

RIP